


Welcome Home

by AkumaStrife



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Drabble, M/M, post winter soldier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-03
Updated: 2014-11-03
Packaged: 2018-02-23 23:33:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2559884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AkumaStrife/pseuds/AkumaStrife
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Your name is James Buchanan Barnes. You are 28 years old. You joined the army, served in the 107th, and then helped me form the Howling Commandos. We saved a lot of people. You’re brave, and loyal, and a damn good soldier. We’re… friends, Buck, real good friends.” The man says it softly and automatically. Bucky wonders how many times he’s repeated these facts. He wants to apologize, but doesn’t know why, or even how.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Welcome Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SnackerJack](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnackerJack/gifts).



Bucky wakes up in the early dawn light in a cold sweat, a hoarse cry torn from his throat as the screams echo in his ears. He reaches out his senses before even opening his eyes: soft bed beneath him (too soft), the breeze from an open window (escape route), light from a cracked door (secondary escape route if Obstacle blocks the window), and a warm, heavy weight pressed up against his side, stirring awake (Obstacle). 

“Buck?” the Obstacle asks, voice thick and raspy from sleep. He skims a big hand up Bucky’s arm—the cold one he cant always feel—and draping it across his heaving chest. 

He tenses under the touch. “Who?” 

The Obstacle sighs, a warm puff of air against Bucky’s neck that he finds he doesn’t mind. The arm is pulled back and everything in Bucky screams to take this opportunity to escape, but his mistake is glancing at the Obstacle first. His mused hair and the way he sleepily blinks at him, the emotion in his eyes that makes Bucky regret not knowing this beautiful man. 

“Good morning,” the Obstacle—no… the man says. He is open and not a shred of hostility in him, just weary and sorrow. Unconsciously Bucky relaxes into the pillow. “Your name is James Buchanan Barnes. You are 28 years old. You joined the army, served in the 107th, and then helped me form the Howling Commandos. We saved a lot of people. You’re brave, and loyal, and a damn good soldier. We’re… friends, Buck, real good friends.” The man says it softly and automatically. Bucky wonders how many times he’s repeated these facts. He wants to apologize, but doesn’t know why, or even how. 

The man yawns, eyes closing briefly that’s too long to be a blink, but not long enough to have fallen back asleep. Bucky watches the way golden light falls over the man, lights up his hair and casts shadows through his eyelashes.

Then the man is looking at him again. “I’m Steve Rogers.”

Bucky sucks in a sharp breath without meaning to, because he may not remember who he is, but he remembers Steve. _Steve_. How on earth could he forget about Steve? Scrappy Steve picking fights and bruised up, blood dripping from his nose and mouth, trying to stand tall on knees that shake. Steve asleep next to him on couch cushions. Steve next to him at a funeral. Steve looking down at him in Hydra’s base with enough desperate love to make Bucky’s lungs collapse. 

Steve next to him atop a snowy cliff. 

Steve’s hand, outstretched and growing smaller.

The memories filter back to him, each one with Steve next to him. There is no him without Steve. 

“Steve,” he whispers, shifting a little closer, taking in every detail of his face. 

“Yeah, bud, it’s me.” Steve raises his arm, patient and questioning, his relief palpable when Bucky immediate scoots into his arms, tucking his face into his neck. Steve drops a kiss onto his shoulder, on the scared skin fused with his metal arm. “Welcome Home.”

“Yeah,” Bucky murmurs. “I’m home.”


End file.
